6 yrs old.. evaluation

Confuzzled mom,

I think I saw your post on the “other board”. I think I answered you. I have a daughter with almost mirror IQ scores

111 verbal
130 perf
122 fullscale
108 verbal comprehension index

She attends the gifted resource room with accommodations. She made straight A’s in the 2nd half of 3rd grade. She has very few accommodations. (Repeat key material, limited board copying, use of word processor for written assignments, and extended time for book reports and projects).
She is making all A’s and B’s on her papers for 4th grade, although she has a lot of trouble “keeping up” with the class and finishing her work - she brings it home. She uses a computer and AT in both the classroom and gifted resource.

She wants good grade, is determined, has a lot of perserverance.

I don’t push her, she pushes herself. An example. We are on our way to soccer practice, going over the spelling words in the car. She leaves the “k” out of donkey. (how do you miss that??) She misses two other words. I say, “It’s okay, honey, you’ll still make a B+”. She says “I will NOT make a B+”, and she begins to write the 3 misspelled words 20X each. She made a 100 on the spelling test. (I keep telling her that ANYTHING above a “C” in spelling is a gift).

I keep trying to tell her that these grades and performance will not last as we head into middle school. Her reply, “You just don’t GET IT do you, Mom?”
I am holding on for the ride.

I tell you all this, not to brag, but to show you that with the right remediation and support, you son can do well despite his diagnosis. Good luck.

Please tell me how you got your district to do Gifted with accomodations. My son has been placed in gifted math but will not be placed in gifted pull out due to Visual Processing/ADHD issues (a littlemore complicated since he only scores well on a WISC and not the group administered IQ test they use). He scored 158 VIQ/102 PIQ before Vision Therapy so he is the opposite than on your scores.

He keeps on persevering even though his sister scored a perfect score on the IQ test given. The district’s answer last year was that he wouldn’t be in the best environment to put him in the gifted pull out with a sister who doesn’t have to struggle at all whereas he does. I did actually agree with that but this year he moves to Upper Elementary (5-6 in our district) and therefore is without his sister for a year. I am having to have a WISC administered privately again (only good for a year) since he didn’t do well on their test AGAIN. They will then place him in the pull out in November since we know he will score high enough (135 requirement) but I am concerned about directions and overload.

Our Gifted teacher has suggested getting a 504 but…..how to word a 504 on a Gifted/LD/ADHD kid the district hasn’t dealt with-they are just admitting that Twice Exceptional children exist and we will be the first to push the issue. Any ideas on things that were included in your accomodations would be helpful…but cannot be things that would require the district to mark “Modified Program” on his report card-my son is already planning on attending the Air Force Academy (!) and this would hurt him later if he really sticks with his plan.

It’s kind of a long story.

Daughter was evaluated, evaluator wrote in the eval that both her potential and her weaknesses should be addressed by an IEP/504. Principal took 1 look at the eval., called the school psych., and said “does this say what I think it says”?

We had an IEP meeting (she is under 15 min consult only w/parent declines all other services at this time. She also receives OT services through the school). I was very hesitant to put her in gifted (she could not read! - well, she couldn’t read at grade level). However, no behavioral problems, and a good attitude.

She goes into gifted. Her writing is illegible, she couldn’t keep up, couldn’t copy from the board, they want to kick her out. She comes home one day with an “F” on a test. I almost stroked. I said “what happened?” She looks at me like I’m the dumbest person on God’s earth and says, “MOM, I couldn’t read the questions!”. (Reading is well above grade level in gifted) I call the teacher and tell her “you need to read the test to her”. She replies, “Don’t worry, Mrs. ____,”. I reply “I won’t worry, as long as you read the test to her”. She gets oral test, makes 100%. BTW, this teacher NEVER displayed my daughter’s work on the board outside the classroom b/c her work was never “pretty” enough.

This goes on. She LOVES the class. Meanwhile, I have pulled her out of school 2x wkly in the afternoon for LMB tutoring, she’s going to SI OT and we come in late 1 day a week for keyboarding classes (she still made A’s & B’s). At keyboarding I learn about AT. Teacher lets other kids read to her when necessary.

At the end of 2nd grade the teacher comes to me and “suggests” that she not come back. Said her writing is terrible and “you know, Mrs. ____, she can’t copy from the board either. (That really made me mad). I said she will be getting an AlphaSmart next year and those haunting words, “The LAW says that when the barrier to learning is the ability to write, then YOU need to make the accommodation”. Freaked her out. We “discussed” this several times and she reminded me that my daughter was going to have to write a research paper in third grade. We got some good software, and she used it and wrote a little “report” that I gave to the teacher. (She was not convinced)

She returned to gifted 3rd grade. She did the research paper on the computer using co-writer. She did her bibliography cards on the computer. She wrote a research paper (now granted, it was not as good as some of the others, but who cares). B/c of the LMB and SI OT her reading was now at grade level (comprehension much higher). Her handwriting also improved dramatically (tho still slow) - in fact it’s better than some 4th graders.

The gifted teacher admitted at the IEP mtg. after 3rd grade that she “was not the same child that came to me in 2nd grade”. And that she felt she COULD recommend her for 4th grade gifted. She just began 4th grade gifted and I am watching “like a hawk” how they treat her and how she’s doing. I plan to meet with the gifted teacher soon.

We did have 1 problem. They had NO computer in the classroom. I wrote 3 cm-rrr letters to the school. Saying my daughter meets the criteria for gifted, and under IDEA ‘97 it is appropriate for her to attend gifted resource and it is appropriate for them to provide the tools for her to perform at a level commensurate to her peers. That ended that. She now has a district provided laptop in the classroom.

It’s been 1 heck of a fight. They HATE me. I don’t care. My daughter likes school, works hard and makes good grades. And all b/c they have her a chance. Sorry for the long story, but it’s been quite a struggle.

I have to agree with ball that there is a good chance he is just bored. And I just want to say that Leah(she reminds me of my Mom who fought for my brother and me). But as far as what the IEP says there is a good chance he is just bored. But from my own experiences on a personal level some children can learn to compensate with their disability. My advice is to do your homework before you go into the meeting(or any meeting for that matter) because a school will pull in as many ‘experts’ (i use that loosly) into the room so they can gang up on a parent. So do your homework. Take that IEP and find out what every thing means on there. Good luck and have argueing with these people.

Megan

P.S- If the school he attends is low on funds are unwilling to spend money, be prepared to argue. With his scores they may say he is not LD but that doesnt mean he doesnt need the certain services. My grade school told my mom that i was to smart to be LD and I didnt need the services anymore.

Same thing happened recently with my daughter. They said “b/c she scored so high on her FCAT’s (Fla. compreh. ach. test), we don’t believe she continues to need support services” I told them that the REASON she is doing so well is 1) b/c she’s bright 2) b/c she’s never failed 3) b/c she has such a great self esteem - b/c we found the problem at the end of 1st grade and began private remediation and 4) she gets accommodations for the test. I said IF she were NOT so bright, she would not be considered LD - if she were average IQ, she would not be LD. I also said that they were NOT going to pull my daughter services, and allow her to fail - just to “prove” she needed them. I said “Go look at her evaluation - that is what “proves” she needs services.” They don’t like me. I don’t care.

He is a bright child, but there is unevenness in his profile- with obvious strengths and relative weaknesses. Because our educational curriculum is so verbally loaded, his success in school (math is an exception) may be better related to his verbal abilities than his nonverbal abilities. So I don’t think his IQ would lead to boredom- but he might be bored for other reasons (such as maturity level or poor match with the teaching style). He has clear strengths in the nonverbal domain and may benefit from enrichment in particular subjects (like math), but it looks like he needs remediation and accomodations in others. He is definitely not acquiring reading/writing skills at the rate you would expect for his IQ. Speech/language weaknesses would help to explain the delay in ELA skills. Knowing his precise underlying deficits (auditory processing, word retrieval, verbal memory, etc), will help to guide remediation. Writing, with its need for phonics/ reading skills as well as good organizational skills, is going to be most challenging for him. His ideas (which are probably great) are going to race ahead, while his phonic skills hold him back…and then his ability to sustain attention isn’t his strong point anyway. I’d use a highly structured writing program with him that breaks the writing process down into steps- a lot of visual structure. Sometimes computer writing programs can be really helpful as well. The results suggest a visual learning style and he would benefit from visual materials and lots of hands-on experiential learning activities. As for his attentional difficulties, if you are interested in a definitive diagnosis, I’d seek a neuropsychological assessment of attention related areas. A pediatrician is not trained in this assessment. Behavioral data reported in a school evaluation is generally gained through observation- but the assessment may not explain the behaviors. So maybe he’s off task because he is bored, or avoiding tasks, or preoccupied with something else, or has an attention deficit that makes it hard for him to focus- or all of the above! Specialized assessment can help to weed through these possibilities. Good luck!

I was just curious, you mentioned that “…visual scanning speed and auditory short-term sequential memory are borderline average.

weakest ability is in psychomotor speed on tasks that are routine and clerical-like. (falls at the low average level)

administered a set of test from the WJ-III test of achievement…average in basic reading skills and in math reasoning skills. It is noted that his basic reading skills are borderline average and fall at the kindergarten level. In individual skill areas, child is strongest in math calculation skill which are superior for his age level, quantities concepts which fall at the high average level and in spelling skills which are at the average level. He is weakest in writing skills which are at the below average level. In addition. Childs work attack that is his understanding and use of phonetic skills are also a relative weakness for him. These skill fall at the borderline average level.”

First, I was wondering did you receive actual scores? Generally when the school is saying low average or borderline average, the child is not even in the average. If the average is 85-115 on woodcock johnson and your son scored an 80, he isn’t in the average. Also on speech and language tests, if average is 8-12, and again he scored 6, he isn’t in average. Schools use these terms because it leads you to believe your child is doing fine.

It made me wonder!!

K.

excellent point megan,
and ball
there are too many things that can mimic adhd and speech problems is one of them, neve r accept the schools evaluation if they get persistant you get persistant back, be your childs advocate and get a second opinion for a qualified professsional that has no influence from the school or preference on medicating children. my sons school tried the same thing and my ex wife and i got our son a re evaluation trust me you will be at peace once you do this.
just remember dont settle for the schools low fund plan to get kick backs or funds for the number of children the have in thier school labeled LD or on meds.
This does happen, please trust me!!
Concerned

I would add that if the psychologist mentions Adhd that should be further explored by a psychiatrist. In addition, looks like the ability to decode quickly is an issue (slow processing speed) Sounds like a bit of remedial reading work is necessary but not a huge problem. YOur child is bright! The innattention may end up to be the biggest problem

While it’s clear your son is quite bright, I couldn’t look at testing results such as his and simply say he’s bored in school. Your son has a significant ‘scatter pattern’ i.e. a remarkable variation in his skills with some being impressively strong and others being rather impressively weak especially given how bright he is. I’d also say - school is boring especially to bright children but schools don’t want to hear that and how does that help you or him when the teacher starts yelling at him? Bored or not, bright or not, your son and every other child and their parents need to survive school and in the best scenario, you want them to thrive in school.

ITo work toward the goal of having your interesting son thrive in school, ‘d keep a close eye on him and my greatest concern would not be that he needs teacher reminders to stay on task. I’d particularly like to see his reading improve and I’d make up some sample worksheets to do with him at home. He may ‘get lost’ in the worksheets at school and teachers really can’t give individualized help these days and more and more teachers simply don’t believe in giving help to the individual child who needs it. These days the philosophy of many teachers is really ‘sink or swim’ and they see that as good preparation for life. (As a teacher, I think it’s rather horrible but their classrooms are not mine to run)

I’d very much disagree with any school that wants to ‘behavior manage’ your son’s issues away. To me behavior management with a student like your son, is like trying to sweep his needs under the rug. Don’t let them do that. They say he’s cooperative and interested yet at the same time they try to tell you he needs behavior management. Doesn’t make sense to me…

I tell every parent to keep their ear to the ground on next year’s crop of teachers. Request the teacher that you feel is best for your son. I like teachers who hear the beat of a different drummer and enjoy with children who hear the beat of their own different drummer. Such teachers can usually envelop any children in the magic of their classroom.

Good luck.